Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

We've been having nice weather for running here as well. It's been in the upper 40s, lower 50s in the morning and I've been running in shorts. It's great.

And leave it up to you to recommend something else that I want to buy. I agree with running consistent mileage year round. I'm planning to increase mileage, not decrease over the winter because I'm still building mileage. Also, I can't get away from hills. I need to learn more about different training phases and different types of workouts.

I agree with most of that program except one point. Consistent mileage year around-yes, high mileage year around-no. Just 4-6 weeks at 50% mileage between cycles is enough in my opinion, but you need that to fully recover (physically and mentally). I have fallen into the "keep the fitness" game before and it has only hurt me. There is a reason that most good coaches say that athletes should peak 2-3 times per year and hold that peak for 4-6 weeks. It is from experience. If they try to hold it longer they will hurt the athletes next season (at a low level it just means less improvement but at a high level it means decreased performance in the next season). Anyway, thats just my take. Luckily most people drop intensity and mileage for a while after a marathon but for shorter stuff it is less clear when to cut back. Good luck with the taper mind games.

I think the consistent mileage resonates with me because I think I am much more at risk for injury when *building* mileage (due to my age) and because 50% would take me way too low (25-30 mpw), for both enjoyment of the sport and for my general fitness. I've never really had an injury, but I have had to rebuild and at my age it is slow, tedious and discouraging. I can see how your point of view would apply more to younger or fitter runners but I thought Hudson's reasoning was very sound. Thanks for commenting on my blog. Cheers.

Year round consistent mileage sounds good to me. I don't take that to mean year round "peak" mileage. But keeping a good base of miles so that when you do train for a specific race you begin your cycle from a position of aerobic strength and fitness, which includes "nonlinear periodization" I think this method sounds like a good way to stay motivated year round.

Thanks Sno- I'll look up Hudsons article and see if I want to apply that to my training over the next year.

A happy Autumn Equinox to all!

Hi Snoqualmie - we bought Hudson's book, Dean is still reading now, so I won't get to read it until he is finished ... but, from the parts I have glanced at, I really like what he has to say. Interestingly, one of the other principles that he espouses that goes against most other coaches is the fact that he suggests that if you run two runs/day only a few times a week (compared to every day) then you should do them on "easy days". Most coaches (including mine) suggest running short, easy run on the same day as workout/hard days. Interesting.

Happy tapering.

This is such an interesting disussion. I usually only keep about 30 MPW in winter-- I enjoy cold winter running. I started keeping close to 50 miles per week since about July and have been wondering if I could keep it up all winter. I've really enjoyed higher mileage overall. Running 4-6 miles a day is somehow like trying to swim against the current, once you hit 8+ a day it's like swimming in open water. Maybe it takes older runners more time to 'warm up' but we have more mental stamina to keep it going. I'm interested in both the book and the article-- neat discussion!

Nicely put, luzylew. Open water, yes.